We're Home // Summertime

Well hello dusty ol’ thing; I’ve come to catch up over a cup of coffee and the most fantastic afternoon light beaming in over my shoulder. It’s my favorite place to sit in our new home; with my back to the bay window and all the light peaking through the backyard trees into the dining room. When we started looking for a house I had no idea it was going to be so emotional or take so long; in March after 8 months and 3 contracts that fell through (thankfully) we ended up here. A 3 bedroom 2 bathroom house with nice long back deck and a great outdoor space for the kids in a wonderful family friendly neighborhood just 2 miles from Target. We just kept saying over and over again it’s perfect for us; it meets all of out needs and some of our wants; it’s ours! Thankfully the previous owner kept everything in excellent condition so there is only minor updating needed but nothing immediate (I mean technically yes you can live with a duck themed ceiling fan in one of the bedrooms). Prior to moving in we painted the kitchen and dining Colorado Gray and the living room and entry way Moonshine, both by Benjamin Moore. I had great visions of painting most of the house and getting it all cozy with personal touches this summer by life had other ideas and by life I mean two rambunctious boys! Looking back I’m thankful I’ve had a few extra months to really hone in on what I want in this space and what will best fit our daily living.

This summer was wonderful and being four days into the new school year has only confirmed how glorious summer really is. We had standing play dates with our bible study group weekly but besides that we just beat to our own drum. The gym, the splash pad, the lake, Grammys, the library; we got into a little routine of after breakfast getting out of the house until lunch time then coming home to eat, take naps, and relax until Dad got home.

Speaking of Dad, in June he was ordained as a Calvary Chapel Pastor! As in yes, I’m a pastor’s wife. I know, right? How did God miss that critical error? I guess if anyone doubts that God doesn’t call the qualified but qualifies the called then they can just look at us and see wow, God really does change lives! There is nothing good in me except Jesus. It’s been so exciting to watch Davy obey God’s calling and to get a peek into what that entails. He still works four days a week at his 9-5er but spends one day a week at the church.

Towards the end of the summer I tried to bottle up as many lazy days as possible by enforcing we don’t get out of our jammies all day or we just take it really easy. This summer I have learned to love being home; love spending time playing in the boy’s rooms or cuddling watching a movie or taking a family walk out to check the mail or just walking around saying yes, this is home. And now here we are at the start of the school year and I have a kindergartener. Let that soak in. But more on that another day.

(read: life)

Can we just call it a summer break and pretend I’m not the worst blogger ever? Remember how I used to post once, twice, three times a week? Ha! To be fair I have typed out a few blogs, then lost one, then the second one didn’t make sense without the first one, and then I’ve left the walls bare for far too long.

This silence isn’t due to depression or a new jet setting life—it’s due to a heck of a lot of changes both literally, emotionally, mentally, and all those gray areas in between.

Here’s a recap because at this point I need to stop feeling like crap I’ve abandoned my space on the internets and move on.

June—we find out mid June we need to find a new place to live in 5 weeks. We freak out. Money’s tight. It’s about to get tighter. We freak out some more, have little “what are we doing with our life” crisis, and decide to move 2 weeks later. We decide living simpler is not that big of a deal as long as we have each other (read: we move into a place with no yard and that is literally half the size of our old place). In the end we are about 2 miles from our old place and saving money—who would have thought, certainly not us.

July- I take a 6 day road trip with my mom and younger sister all the way up to Philadelphia for a family reunion. Favorite driving memories: eating, talking, listening to The Wedding on CD, eating, visiting Raleigh for the 4^th, eating, visiting Trader Joes for the first time and understand why people are kookoo for those Hawaiian shirt hippies, and eating. I loved seeing family, I hated driving through a hail storm on the Capital Beltway, and I missed my boys about day 4.

Get home to a house that isn’t mine and have a mini freak out again; what I’m I doing here. We seriously consider a lifelong dream of moving to France for year only to find out that’s going to be highly unlikely until we buckle down on the books for a few years or save enough money to not work the entire time we’re there (read: win the lottery).  

Emotional and internal start to change around our house and this becomes my new mantra: this is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it. Boom.

August- I turn crappy Saturdays Davy has to work into Adventure Days for Moses and I and we gallivant around town spending money on crack (read: Starbucks) and doing fun things together. Even the days Davy is home we still like to get out of the house and live. Davy’s work situation is at an all time awfulness and I’ve gained back a few pounds for simply pretending food consumption doesn’t count during the summer but oddly we’re finding so my joy. Our marriage is stronger than ever, my love for Moses is an oozy overflowing mess, and amongst muck there is joy, so much joy!

Imagine a small fort with flames being thrown toward it and evil people banging on the walls trying to knock them over. Inside that fort is us, our little family of 3, just skipping around having a good time. Occasionally a fire ball gets over the wall and knocks us down; turns our mood all mucky and we have a lapse in faith.  If we let it manifest on the inside and grow bigger and bigger then forget about it, our fort would fall apart and things would turn to crap—so instead we’re trusting God (you know, the one who built the fort walls out of steel) to take care of us.  

This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.

Hey Everybody!

The title is appropriately named for one of my favorite phases Moses’ says. He likes to make sure everyone has their eyes on him even if it’s just Davy and I in the room with him.

I had tons of fun last week posting all the diaper reviews and giveaways and seeing everyone entering to win. Like I mentioned last week I will announce all the winners tomorrow so if you’ve been delaying you need to enter TO-DAY! Maybe you haven’t thought about this but if you’re the single gal who is nowhere near having babies you might have a friend who does….so…you should enter to win for them!

Even though I posted 10 times last week I never once got to share all the things going on in our Busyland! We’ve had such a great summer and so many fun things have happened over these past two weeks. I wish I picture documented them all but that would require me to be Super Friend/ Mom/ Wife and I am not!

July 4th we spent a wonderfully long day at the beach. We ate and swam and play and ate and read and ate and slept and ate. No one got too burned, no one cried about sand in their hair, and everyone left happy. We had 3 shade tents set up (for 5 adults!) and felt very European with tables set up with food everywhere.

We got to see a good “couple friends” of ours get married. They are part of our fun large circle of friends so needless to say we had a blast. Lots of laughing, dancing, drinking, eating (blueberry cheese!) and overall a wonderful night. I think regardless of how cheap or expensive your wedding is it’s the people that make it memorable; if you’ve got a clan of Uncles/ Dad/ Grandpas on the dance floor with ties around their heads and Great Grandma shaking it on the dance floor you know it’s going to be good!

We also had a very special birthday boy in the house this week but I’ll wait and share the birthday stories to include pictures and sentimental wifey stuff. Until then, have fun soaking up the days of summer!

(Sorry for sounding disgustingly optimistic…I’m just really happy these days!) 

Summertime Chill

With the 100 degree heat hovering over North Florida lately and Summer Solstice this week I knew I wanted to make something that yelled “SUMMERTIME”! I stumbled upon Gina’s Skinny Recipes a couple weeks ago when trying to find a healthy banana nut bread recipe and have fallen in love. She takes classic recipes (along with some I’ve never heard of) and gives them a healthy spin all while keeping their flavor. Not only does she offer up the recipes but she gives Weight Watchers points and nutritional facts on everything.
I have been eyeing these fruit filled popsicles since last week and can imagine many hot summer days in the kiddie pool with these in hand.
I quadrupled the recipe to make 16 popsicles and used organic apple juice (because that’s all I had on hand). They are super simple to make and taste wonderful!

Basically you pick out a few of your favorite fruits.

 Dice them up and add them together in a big bowl.

Fill each of the 5 oz cups with the fruit mixture and add 1 tbsp of juice.

Insert popsicle sticks and freeze.

I was hoping to debut them this weekend but after dinner last night we couldn’t resist!

 

Moses is picky about his fruit but since everything was chopped up and frozen he didn’t seem to mind the tartness of the kiwi. When I first made them I thought they seemed kind of small but since they literally are frozen fruit chunks it actually takes a nice long while to lick (or bite if you’re a toddler) your way through.

About half way through bitting/licking/chewing

I stuck with Gina’s recipe to avoid a flavor mix up but next on my list I’m going to make more of a tropical popsicle by adding chunks of pineapple, mango, banana, and kiwi with a slash of orange juice. At under 40 calories a pops these are the perfect hot summer day treat regardless of your age!